Experimental Blog # 202

Quotations and comments on "Where the Indus is Young" - A Winter in Baltistan and "Eight Feet in the Andes" by Dervla Murphy

"Where the Indus is Young" was published in 1977 and it is about a 'trek' that the author took with her daughter, Rachel, in Baltistan; which is also known as Kashmir. Their journey began about December 19, 1974 and ended on March 24, 1975. Mother and daughter were accompanied by a pack mule that they named Hallam, and Rachel rode on him most of the time.

"When we left for Pakistan Rachel was not yet six < > Had that journey{an earlier journey of four months in South India}not been so successful, from her point of view, I would never have contemplated taking her to Baltistan. < > Rachel is a natural stoic, and a muscular and vigorous little person, well able to walk ten or twelve miles a day without flagging."!!
   "To me it seems that the five-to-seven-year-old stage is ideal for travelling rough with small children. < > over-sevens tend to be much less philosophical in their reactions to the inconveniences and strange customs of far-flungery. By the age of eight, children have developed their own {usually strong} views about how they wish life to be, and are no longer happy automatically to follow the parental leader." Dervla Murphy reveals herself to be an original child psychologist.


"Eight Feet in the Andes" was published in 1983 and it is about another 'trek' that mother and daughter took in Peru that started about September 3, 1978 and ended on December 22.

"When we walked across the border bridge from Ecuador into Peru my daughter Rachel was aged nine years and eight months. < > We planned to buy a riding-mule in Cajamarca{which they did, and named Juana}. Then I would walk while Rachel rode the 1300 miles {or so} from Cajamarca to Cuzco."
"I looked past Juana to Rachel in the lead, her short legs covering the last stage of{for her} a 900-mile walk." Apparently, the 900 miles is the actual distance that Rachel actually walked of the 1300 mile 'trek'. On this journey the author writes that her 9, turning 10, year old daughter did walk 20 to 22 miles a day!

The extreme physical and mental stresses and risks that Dervla Murphy endures, and her daughter, too, are many times alarming, annoying, and, sometimes, make tedious reading; but really serious calamities always seem to be barely avoided, somehow. The very lengthy excerpts and quotations from Rachel's diary of this journey are among the most impressive parts of this book. For a nine year old Rachel wrote extremely well. Rachel was never revealed as a "captive" of her mother; and whenever any occasion arose, she always staunchly defended her.